


The Loser's Guide to Traveling

by rumpledvelvet



Series: liminal space adventures [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: (oh my), Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Cats, Friendship, Ghosts, Other, Psychic Phichit Chulanont, Psychics, Witch Katsuki Yuuri, Witch Lee Seung Gil, Witches
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-30
Packaged: 2018-12-18 12:44:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11874729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rumpledvelvet/pseuds/rumpledvelvet
Summary: Four teenagers decide to make a guide for traveling liminal spaces together. It ends up being a "Don't Do The Stupid Shit We Do" guide, but they like it all the same.





	1. how to deal with street cats

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! Some of you might recognize the premise and title of this chapters from a fic I had previously posted of the same name! I was super dissatisfied with that particular fic and have decided to retackle the universe in a way I think suits it better. I will repost some of the deleted fics, but they will _hopefully_ all be edited for maximum readability.
> 
> The premise of this guide does not belong to me and you can find it all [here!](http://thiccboyd.tumblr.com/post/160592674342/how-to-deal-with-street-cats)
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are great, and you can talk to me about anything you see in this fic or the other ones!

Following cats will end up being exceptionally low on the “Crazy Shit Otabek and His Friends Get Into” list, but for the time being it is definitely a solid number one. It’s crazy because apparently the simple act of following cats into the unknown has a long list of rules that Yuri Plisetsky, all knowing Cat God, will not let anyone forget as long as they remain fortunate enough to be his friend.

**1) Be nice to them. They’re doing an important job. Do not chase them, grab them, or harass them.**

They’re lazing by the curb in front of Leo’s house when Yuri finally finds them a fluffy white cat to follow. She’s elegant, and well groomed, and Otabek has a hard time figuring out just how she became a street cat that he and his friends will follow. Guang-Hong chooses to call her Mei-Yin, for her beauty and the way her blue eyes catch the light. She doesn’t let them approach her at first, lifting her little pink nose in the air before turning her back to them with her tail raised high.

She reminds them all of Yuri, though none of them say it.

“Why don’t we just grab her?” Leo says after a few minutes of this, sitting down on the curb. His cargo shorts are stained with a rainbow of paint colors and he’s holding a soft leather notebook in his hand to remind him to take notes on everything they see because there’s a good chance that none of their phones will work when they start following the cat. He looks tired, but he just got off of an opening shift from the bookstore so Otabek sympathizes.

“She won’t take us anywhere if we just grab her. We have to show her respect.” Yuri says it slowly as if he thinks Leo is a small child who cannot grasp simple concepts. He looks like he wants to follow the Mei-Yin, but forcibly keeps himself still while he thinks.

Guang-Hong is quiet at this small revelation and plays with the crystal necklace hanging from his neck for a moment before he speaks. “So, what do we do then?”

**2) Always bring some food with you, it’s just polite.**

“We bribe her.”

This answer is met with silence before Yuri kneels down to open his yellow backpack and pulls out several packs of salmon-flavored cat treats. From experience, Otabek knows that those treats are definitely on the more expensive side and he admires his friend’s commitment to the cause – even if he’s still unsure just what the cause is.

Guang-Hong is the first to act, taking a pack of the treats and starting to make a small line of them to the curb where they had set up camp. “This is crazy,” he says as he works, a cheerful smile on his face, “I love it.”

Yuri offers him a brilliant grin as the cat finally turns her attention to their assembled group and the salmon-flavored offering. “Me too.”

**3) Approach them slowly, and let them come to you. Sometimes, you might have to sit on the ground and tap it a few times. This is what you brought food for.**

It’s a slow task for them to bribe the cat to the point where she was comfortable enough to willingly come close enough for them to touch. Guang-Hong’s trick with the treats only works for about three minutes before Mei-Yin darts away, just out of reach.

“She’s so stubborn,” Yuri complains, though Leo notes that he sounds a little admiring of her path of resistance, squatting down to rest on the balls of his feet as Mey-Yin makes another loose and uncaring circle around them. They all know that Yuri is used to being the absolute best with cats and is uncertain how to proceed with one that doesn’t immediately follow the program. “She clearly wants the food, but she’s being so difficult.”

Leo watches as Otabek takes Guang-Hong’s pack of treats and sits down on his butt on the August-hot cement. From his new angle he can see the freckles on Yuri’s shoulders, the shaving cuts on Guang-Hong’s legs, and the mottled blue of Mei-Yin’s eyes. Carefully, he pours a handful of the treats into one hand, making sure she can see, and taps lightly on the ground four times.

Surprisingly, she approaches him and eats the treats right out of his open palm. “I think she’ll let us pet her now,” he says, and she does so Yuri smiles brighter than the sun.

**4) At some point after you have managed to touch the cat it will turn and sprint away. This is when you start following it.**

“And she’s off!” Leo says in his best announcer’s voice once they all get their pets in and Mei-Yin takes off down the street. Laughing, Yuri manages to shout that they can’t lose her and together they head out into the unknown with their new feline friend.

She takes several twists and turns that none of them remember their town having and stops at the very edge of a warm, sweet smelling forest. She waits for them to catch their breath and observe their surroundings, indulging Guang-Hong by letting him scratch just behind her ear.

“What’s that smell?” Otabek asks, one of his hands cupping his eyes from the harsh, golden sunlight. Yuri answers that it’s honeysuckle before his voice trails off and he turns his head west, to the sun. It’s unfair that he’s not blinded the same way Otabek is, but the older of the two doesn’t say anything.

“It’s..golden hour. The sun is setting.” Yuri says quietly as he turns his eyes back to the honeysuckle forest. There are birds singing and they can almost make out the burbling of a small stream nearby. The shade of the forest would be a welcome reprieve from the oppressive heat of the sun, and they each take a step towards it before Mei-Yin hisses at them.

“I don’t think she wants us to go into the forest.” Leo says calmly, steering both Guang-Hong and Yuri in the direction Mei-Yin and Otabek were already traveling in. “Come on, we don’t want her to leave us behind.”

**5) Cats do not want you to get lost, but they can be very fast. Never lose sight of them, you should stay with them until your return. This might look like your street, but you are in a liminal space already. Try not to get lost.**

They soon find out that Mei-Yin is a merciless leader. She refuses to slow down enough for any of them to look too hard at anything after it proved that Yuri and Guang-Hong would be easily distracted by their surroundings and would probably have stupid ideas if left to their own devices. It is only when they pass a beautiful, white stone building that her gait slows enough for her human charges to take a look inside the open windows.

Inside the ballroom are the most beautiful people any of them have ever had the pleasure of seeing, each and every one of them having the time of their lives as they laugh, dance, and pop rose-colored champagne. There is one man who stands out from the rest, quite literally, as he rises up amongst the crowd and extends his hand towards their little group with a glowing smile.

He looks rather like Yuri, Otabek thinks and promptly grabs onto his friend as he takes several steps towards the handsome stranger. It’s concerning that Yuri would abandon his own rules at a time like this and Otabek stubbornly refuses to give the blond stranger another glance.

“No. Look, Mei-Yin wants us to leave.” The cat had promptly quickened her pace again and Leo has to help Otabek drag Yuri away from the party so none of them would be lost. The street they were on only looked familiar, after all. “Are you okay?” He asks as an afterthought, noticing the far away look in Yuri’s vibrant green eyes. He nods, but there’s something about him that just seems terribly unsure.

They all walk a lot faster after that.

Mei-Yin takes them past a pool that Guang-Hong thinks he recognizes, but the people splashing around look nothing like anyone that they know and their cat gives the pool a wide berth to signify that they all should follow suit. She’s impatient to get them all back home safely and Yuri can’t blame her.  
Eventually, the golden hue of the setting sun darkens into shades of pink and orange and it becomes clear that their adventure is coming to an end. Mei-Yin leads them back to the street where they all had first met her and sits elegantly on the curb as the sun finally disappears beneath the horizon. The four of them stand together in front of the warm yellow house after saying goodbye to Mei-Yin, slowly making their way back inside once she takes off into the night.

One of Leo’s moms is making dinner in the kitchen while her wife takes a well deserved nap on the couch in the living room. From the warm smell of spices coming from the kitchen, it’s easy to tell they they’d both been home for a while. This is normal so they creep upstairs unnoticed, turn on the radio and make themselves comfortable in Leo’s room. It’s the same shade of yellow as the outside of the house and Yuri wonders how his friend is able to sleep in it.

Leo opens his notebook and writes The Loser’s Guide to Traveling on the inside cover. Cheerfully, he turns to the next blank page and writes Street Cats: The How To Guide.

“That sounds so stupid.” Yuri protests from where he’s sprawled out on the floor, sneakers abandoned by the door and painted toenails pointed up to the ceiling.

“What would you call it?” Otabek asks.

“How To Deal With Street Cats.”


	2. How To Deal With Ghosts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Get in loser, we're going ghost hunting!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here we are, with the second chapter that has probably caused me more grief than strictly necessary. i do rather like it, though, and i hope you do too!
> 
> this is un-beta'd, so hit me up with any glaring mistakes that you might see!

“Get in the car, loser.” It’s weird, seeing Yuri driving anything other than his ‘vintage’ convertible. The pickup is Leo’s, an ugly shade of matte yellow that Yuri would never own, but he looks comfortable in the driver’s seat. His eyes are wild and dark and he looks _alive._ It's easy to follow that look.

“Where are we going?” Otabek asks, because it's his job to ask his crazy friends questions when they show up at his house at two in the morning.

“Ghost hunting!” Guang-Hong cheers, standing up from where he and Leo were sitting in the bed of the truck. It’s not like Yuri to make his friends sit anywhere but the cab – especially because this _isn't_ his car – but Otabek assumes they were getting cozy while Yuri drove. Couples were _weird_.

Ghost hunting was also _weird_ but had become a regular event in their lives. “Where?”

“That decrepit old motel with the headstones in front of it; where else?” Yuri reaches a long arm over to open the passenger side door for Otabek, green eyes reflecting the porch light of his family’s home.

Otabek gets in the car because he’s _stupid_ and stupidly in love with Yuri and his wild ideas. “Of course. Why would we go anywhere else?”

“Exactly!” Yuri buckles Otabek in before revving the engine as much as one could rev the engine of an old pickup and taking off loudly down the road. Amina would have a field day talking about her oldest brother’s “hooligan friends” over breakfast; he found he didn't care.

* * *

The decrepit old motel with the headstones in front of it is just on the edges of town and has a population of white cats living in and around it. Once the pickup is parked, Yuri tells each and every cat that he loved them before feeding them each a salmon treat. He goes through two bags.

Leo has never given the old motel much thought, because his mothers had raised him _not_ to give creepy things much thought outside of praying to the elder faerie gods for their deliverance, but now that he was face to façade with it he could admit that it was an interesting structure. On the surface, it didn’t look any different from the usual one level motel that one would find on the side of the typical American highway. It’s the normalcy of its presence that gives its decrepit appearance an even more unsettling air because while these sorts of motels weren’t always the most friendly of places you could depend on their consistency. This motel in particular did bring up some interesting questions, though.

Who built a motel behind a graveyard? Who plotted a graveyard in front of a motel? The world might never know. Leo, for one, isn’t sure that he wants to know but Yuri probably intends to find out. He liked discovering the reasons behind things and yelling at anyone who asked him why.

“Do you think it's _actually_ haunted?”Guang-Hong asks, crossing his arms over his chest in an attempt to prove to Leo that he was small and frail and _desperately_ needed his fleece jacket. Leo hands it over with little fanfare and wonders why Guang-Hong doesn't believe in haunted motels but believes in haunted 7/11s and aliens. He has some questions for his boyfriend.

“If it's _not_ , I’ve got some serious questions for the 7/11 ghosts and they came to haunt the Slurpee machine rather than this shit stain.” Yuri has one of the white kittens in his arm and it takes several minutes of convincing by Otabek to give the kitten back to her mother and leave the cats alone so they can deal with the probably haunted run down cemetery-motel combo.

**Rule Number One: Respect the dead. If there are tombstones do not touch them, similarly do not step on graves.**

They walk in a single file line through the cemetery, careful not to trod on any graves and disturb the souls of any people or creatures who were unfortunate enough to be buried in this particular spot. “I want to be buried in a place like this,” Guang-Hong says once they make it through the thick of the graveyard, patting the headstone of a colonizer who was brutally murdered by the native population, “It’s got character.” The headstone trembles a little at the touch and Guang-Hong promptly dances out of the way of the ghostly glowing hand that tries to grab his ankles, remembering that he wasn’t supposed to do that. Oh, well.

“I _suppose_ .” Otabek says from where he's shaking the chills of the graveyard off of his broad shoulders. He doesn't exactly feel like he's _trespassing_ , but it's not a particularly nice feeling regardless. He thinks the dead are watching him and he doesn’t think that he likes it. “What's that sign against evil your mom uses, Leo?”

“Which mom, which sign?” His friend says with mock cheer, shoving his cold hands intoGuang-Hong pockets to keep them warm before he was forced to move them. When Otabek gives him the look of Neutral Disappointment, he sighs and removes himself from Guang-Hong to lift his right hand up. Carefully, with innumerable amounts of eyes on him, he folds his thumb and pinky finger towards his palm and hooks the three remaining fingers into a claw. He brings the hand across his chest and pushes it out slowly in demonstration before repeating it with Otabek for actual effect.

Once Otabek is soothed, they start moving again. There's centuries of debris on the ground ranging from old Civil War buttons to Nintendo 64's but Yuri urges them to avoid touching anything and angering any spirits who could be watching. This rule, of course, did not stop him from leaning down and inspecting a positively _ancient_ X-Men comic. He even contemplates stealing it, but stealing from the dead is in bad taste when you're already trespassing _and_ Victor would never forgive him for bringing a ghost into the house.

“So,” Guang-Hong starts, staring up at the cracked windows that howled as wind moved in and out of the glass shards. He feels even smaller than usual and tucks into Leo. “What do we do now? Do we just, like, walk in? I feel like that’s not exactly respectful.”

“Maybe we ask if we can go inside?” It isn’t much, but it’s better than no idea so they step towards the rotting, mushroom covered steps that led up to the front office.

**Rule Number Two: Don't ask the dead how they died. It encourages them to lash out because of bad memories.**

Before they make it very far, Yuri stops suddenly with the overwhelming sensation of being watched; this feeling is not to be confused with the subtle sensation of being watched by all the ghosts of the graveyard. That feeling could be ignored but this one made the little hairs on the back of Yuri’s exposed neck stand on end and guided his gaze to a space just to the right of the motel. At first glance, he doesn’t see anything, eyes narrowing before he gasps and his friends turn in almost perfect synchronization to stare at the ghostly blue lynx that's lingering in the previously empty space. He doesn’t know how he knows that the ghost is female, but he knows that he loves her and wants to be her friend. Yuri doesn’t think that ghosts get to choose where they haunt but if he were her he would have haunted the bastard’s house to teach him a nice lesson about killing big cats. But Yuri is petty and big cats are a sensitive topic around him. “She's pretty, isn't she?”

Otabek makes a disbelieving noise because _of course_ Yuri is focusing on the beauty of the Ghost Lynx in front of them rather than the fact she could one hundred percent still kill them in her ectoplasmic state. He thinks that maybe he should have heeded Fatima’s advice when she said Yuri was a work of devils and should rightly be left to his own devices. However, Yuri would have been left alone without Otabek and his friends and that was certainly worse. “I wonder how she died.” Leo nods his head in agreement and Otabek is _glad_ that he’s not entirely alone out here.

The Ghost Lynx seems unimpressed with their callousness so for good measure Leo does the warding symbol that he’d taught Otabek earlier in the night. When she doesn’t disappear, they shrugs and let their friends do whatever they wanted to do.

“I like her. What are you going to name her?” Guang-Hong, ever the most willing to go along with Yuri’s crazy plans, smiles and follows after the blond to greet the curious Ghostly Lynx. Despite Otabek and Leo’s misgivings, the lynx seems happy to have visitors and let's Yuri stroke over her glowing fur.

“Anfisa.” _Flower-girl_. It’s an oddly fitting name and she seems to like it if the way she winds her translucent body in between his jean-clad legs is anything to go by.

**Rule Number Three: Always make friends with the ghosts you're visiting. You are a guest. You don't belong.**

Anfisa takes to Yuri like a fish to water and eventually warms up to Guang-Hong enough to let him pet her. She doesn't care much for Leo and Otabek, which is perfectly fine because Leo and Otabek don't care much for her either.

“Can you show us around?” Guang-Hong asks her before linking hands with Yuri and following the silent padding of Anfisa’s large, fluffy feet.

There's something adorable and endearing in the image, but Leo can't see it over the constant stream of ‘¿¿¿???’ running through his head at the weird shit he's gotten himself into tonight. He's going to be grounded for _years_ and it will be a miracle of the elder faerie gods if he will ever be allowed to leave his house again.

“She wants us to be careful of the glass.” Guang-Hong chirps, his cellphone flashlight highlighting the glowing glass on the floor. There are equally glowing eyes watching them as they progress through the motel but they seem to be more afraid of Anfisa than the human interlopers so their little group is left mostly alone.

“Anything else we should be wary of?” Otabek almost wants to tell Leo ‘everything’ but he would be ruining the fun of the exercise and thus keeps his mouth shut while Yuri rattled off a list of things they shouldn't do while in the company of ghosts. If he listens carefully, Otabek can make out ‘don’t touch the ghosts’ and ‘really, just don’t touch anything’. Leo sucks his teeth and holds back the comment lingering on the tip of his tongue.

Guang-Hong and Yuri both had broken those rules already. Leo hopes it doesn’t really matter.

**Rule Number Four: Ghosts sometimes take energy without meaning to. If they are taking too much, politely ask them to stop. You are not a battery, you will need your energy.**

It turns out that it _does_ matter but they don’t notice just how much until it’s almost too late to do anything about it. Their little fivesome is wandering around in room 5 – a monstrosity of 70’s bright green and orange decor that Leo immediately falls in love with– when Guang-Hong's energy starts to sag and Yuri ends up carrying most of his weight even though it’s clear that the blond isn’t doing too hot himself.   

“I think..” Yuri shakes his head, trying to find the words for a few moments before he speaks again, “I think we should maybe leave?” He knows that he’d only touched Anfisa briefly and Guang-Hong had made even shorter contact with her so there shouldn’t have been a super powerful connection between the three of them.

Anfisa is careful to distance herself from both boys, letting Leo and Otabek rush to their aid and beginning to pace over in the far corner of the room next to the broken lava lamp. Leo chances a look over at her once Guang-Hong is safe in his arms and realizes that Anfisa was significantly more opaque than when they had first met her. “Anfisa was using you two as batteries. I don’t think she meant it, though.” She lets out a mournful sound which the group at large takes for agreement. “See?”

“I think we should go, still.” Otabek says, trying not to think too hard about the fact that Yuri in his weakened state was warm and one tilt of the head away from burying his face into the crook of his neck. It is distracting and he needs to focus on getting them all out of there without any other ghosts making them human batteries.

“Anfisa? Can you lead us out again?” Grateful to be of help, the lynx leaps forward and starts her careful padding walk out of the room. She doesn’t leave them in front of the motel, which Otabek and Leo are silently very grateful for, instead walking them to Leo’s ugly yellow pickup truck. Anfisa jumps into the bed of the pickup truck as they all settle together in the cab and Yuri doesn’t have the heart to tell her to get out so Leo starts the engine to drive them all home.

**Rule Number Five: If a ghost wants to follow you home, let it. You have now made a true forever friend.**

Victor takes one look at Anfisa and turns to the liquor cabinet for the bottle of vodka he has been saving for a special occasion. This certainly is _not_ a special occasion but there's a ghost big cat in his house now and his little cousin adamantly refuses to bring it back to where it rightfully belongs. This situation absolutely calls for the good vodka.

Yuuri doesn't let him get the good vodka, instead steering him towards the cheaper things they buy for Yuri and his Adventuring Friends. As always his husband is wise: you don't need expensive alcohol to get fucked up. Makkachin and Vicchan both seem to like this new addition to the home and Victor thinks ‘Traitors’ as he downs the first of many shots that night.

“Do you think she eats?” Yuuri is also a _traitor_. Victor shares his home with absolute traitors and is moving out. Anfisa, as Yuri informs Victor, looks up at him with unearthly blue eyes and he finds himself hopelessly endeared to her.

“I think she better find ghost prey if she wants to stay in our house.”

Victor knocks back another shot to keep from looking at the victorious expression on Yuri’s face.

Traitors.

**Author's Note:**

> i have a tumblr, [phiichiits](https://phiichiits.tumblr.com/), and a twitter, [@rumbledvelvet](https://twitter.com/rumpledvelvet) where you can talk to me and get some sneak peaks from new chapters & one shots!


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